Zimbabwe's cholera victims 'ten times more likely to die'

Cholera victims in Zimbabwe may be 10 times more likely to die than those who contract the disease elsewhere, aid agencies believe.

Children collect stagnant water for use at home in HararePhoto: AP

By Sebastien Berger and Peta Thornycroft in Johannesburg

7:48PM GMT 07 Dec 2008

In a normally functioning country, around one in every 100 cholera patients dies. But in President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, the chances of survival are far lower. Oxfam is planning for 60,000 cholera cases by the end of January –with perhaps 6,000 deaths –indicating a possible fatality rate of 10 per cent.

"The tragedy of this is that really cholera is quite easily treatable," said Caroline Hooper-Box, a spokesman for Oxfam. "The fact people are dying is an indication health services have fallen apart, there are not enough doctors and not enough medication, even simple rehydration salts that would be needed to get somebody back on their feet."

She added: "We are seeing a very high fatality rate. At this point we are seeing between an eight and 10 per cent fatality rate. We think this is due to the fact Zimbabweans are seriously weakend by hunger, HIV and Aids." Mr Mugabe's regime has appealed for international help, which is now on its way, and admitted that its central hospitals are "literally not functioning".

Ms Hooper-Box said: "Things are going to get quite a lot worse before they are going to get better."

A key factor is Zimbabwe's shattered economy, which is accelerating the spread of the water-borne disease.

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The United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, is among aid agencies trying to improve the situation. It has secured sufficient chemicals to treat Harare's mains water for two or three weeks, with another four months' worth of supplies on their way. Unicef is also distributing millions of water purification tablets and taking 360,000 litres of clean water to Harare's poorest suburbs every day.

But Roeland Monasch, its acting representative in the country, said that many households could not manage the simplest preventative measure - boiling their drinking water - because they cannot afford the fuel.

He estimated fatality rates at around four to five per cent, but said these were falling after the opening of 14 treatment centres around Zimbabwe. While the UN is preparing for a 60,000-case epidemic, it did not expect the outbreak to reach those levels.

Farayi Mavhunga, 34, is one survivor of cholera who is now receiving Unicef's purification tablets. "I am trying to only drink clean water with pills from Unicef, but will we be able to get pills all the time?" he asked. "I could get cholera again, I know that. But we are more careful now. We need fresh water every day."

The three-year-old son of Mr Mavhunga's neighbour in Harare died of cholera.

Mr Mavhunga' said:"I was lucky, but the little boy died because his mother didn't realise he was ill. She thought he had wet his trousers, she didn't know it was diarrhoea until it was too late. We were so shocked when the boy died, but now nothing shocks us, most of us expect to die."